Rock 'N Roll Half Marathon - VA Beach
Ended the Summer in style this year. Bill and I went down to Virginia Beach and ran the Rock 'N Roll Half Marathon. We brought our families and stayed at the Cavalier Hotel on the beach. The surf was great and I got some body surfing and boogie boarding in for the first time in a few years. But first, the race:
The weather was really hot and humid! The first place finisher was about two minutes off the event record, and a coach said after the race that all of the elite athletes were off their times by 2-3 minutes.
Ran east from the convention center on 19th St. to Pacific Ave, then headed south, over a bridge and through some pine tree areas. We weaved around Camp Pendleton Army Barracks, which provided little shade, then back North, over the bridge, and turned East on 14th Street. Turned South one block later onto Atlantic Ave, and ran to the end of the island where Atlantic turns around onto the boardwalk. Ran North on the boardwalk just about a mile to the finish line at ~14th Street.
The prerace scene was pretty amazing. There were bib numbers up into the 25000's, so we guessed around 20,000 people probably ran or walked the event. There was a sea of people at the Convention Center in the morning, with corrals set up for 1000 runners each. The wheelchair racers and elites started before 7:00, and the wave of corrals started at 7:00. The MC got everyone excited, trying to get each corral to compete to be the loudest or to start a "wave" going backwards. Beach balls bounced in the crowd.
Unlike the marathon, and really most long runs, there was never a point where I just felt comfortable. The heat and humidity tested my will to go on every step of the way. We were sweating in corral 11 before the race even started and at mile 2 my head was radiating heat, and I was already looking forward to the next water stop. I figured mile 7 would be a morale booster because I'd be more than half was done, but I think mile 7 was the slowest mile. The only time I really felt decent, was turning onto the boardwalk, when I started my "kick" to the finish line. Probably a little premature since the finish was a good mile down the board walk, but I took long strides and passed tons of people, and according to the garmin my last mile was 8:08. My arms started tingling on the boardwalk which was probably a sign of dehydration, even though I stopped at all seven water stops and had a cytomax, a water, and poured water on my head.
The crowd was great the whole race. There really were people along the entire route cheering us on. There were rock and roll bands set up all along the way, high school cheer leading squads, and even groups of people dressed up in themes, like cowboys doing country danced, penguins, all american red-white-and-blue, and so on.
Turns out my overall pace was 3 seconds slower than in the Frederick Marathon! Ran the 13.1 miles in 2:05:56 (Bib 11007). 9:37 (compared to 9:34). It also looks like my heart rate was steady state around 180-185 (average was 181), dipping to 165 at the water stops, but peaking at 200 during the boardwalk kick. By comparison, during the marathon, steady state was closer to 180, average was 177 and peaked at 195 during the final kick.
There was a recovery area with tons of water, "cytomax" (sweet gatorade), bananas, iced towels, etc. After the recovery area they had about four blocks of the beach sectioned off for runners to find their friends and family. Our families managed to find us with no planning whatsoever, thanks to Bill's bright green "Fleet Feet" shirt.
The rest of the weekend was fun. We saw Billy Idol Saturday night at a stage set up on 5th street on the beach. Sunday Bill and Courtney and I went to the same stage to see the B-52's. Both were a lot of fun. We had dinner Saturday night at "The Jewish Mother". And Sunday we ate at "Eat", an American Bistro. Eat had great food. The Jewish Mother, no so much. The hotel was good and bad. Our rooms faced the ocean and had a beautiful view of the beach and waves. The room itself was crappy. Our air conditioner leaked water into our room and soaked our rug the first night. The sink didn't drain. The whole floor stank like cigarettes. Also, it was a hassle being at 42nd street, and getting all the way down town to 5th for the concerts, and especially getting the families back to the hotel after the race with the Wave not running below 22nd street until 1:00, and even above 22nd, not stopping because they were all full of runners!
We liked Virginia Beach, and would like to run it again next year, but I think we'll make reservations at the Hilton
posted by Christian @ 8:43 AM
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